Long-term survivors of chronic adult leukemia present a special case of aging with the extreme stress of a prolonged uncertain illness. Women with breast cancer have been studied over time, but little systematic research exists on the impact of cancer on men in the middle and later years. The overall objective of this pilot study is to refine the methods and determine the feasibility of conducting a prospective longitudinal project that will follow men with a specific type of chronic cancer, hairy cell leukemia (HCL). Theory and clinical research have led us to believe that coping with this stress is greatly influenced by the quality of the marital relationship, psychological symtomatology, and mood disturbance in individuals at each stage of the disease. The specific aims of this pilot, therefore, are: 1) to ascertain the prevalence of problems of psychological symptomatology, mood disturbance and marital functioning in men with this chronic cancer; 2) to examine coping strategies; and, 3) to develop a model of coping that will provide a framework for a longitudinal research project. Primarily affecting men (805 of patients) and diagnosed at a medium age of 56 years, patients with HCL live with an unpredictable course that may extend over 15 years or more. This disease is thus a prototype of a chronic adult cancer with an uncertain course that adds to the stress of effective functioning in aging individuals. The presence of a sample of over 160 men treated at the University of Chicago Hospitals and Clinics will allow us to follow a relatively stable population of men as they age with the stress of cancer, in a multi-year longitudinal study. In this pilot, we propose to conduct a cross-sectional study examining coping in male HCL patients at 3 well defined stages, using a semi-structured interview which includes both standardized tests and open-ended questions. The standard tests will include the Brief Symptom Inventory, the Profile of Mood States, the Coping Strategies Scale and a shortened version of the Marital Quality Scale that measures five dimensions of marital functioning. Along with descriptive and contingency analyses, we will conduct a discriminant analysis to identify the psychological factors which distinguish the stages of the disease and a regression analysis to build a model of factors which affect coping with cancer in the aging male.